Keith Storey

Teaching Preschoolers with Autism to Self-Monitor Their Social Interactions: An Analysis of Results in Home and School Settings:

This study examined the effects of a self-monitoring intervention on the social interactions of 3 preschool boys with autism. A multiple baseline across both school and home settings was used to examine several experimental conditions. First, each child with autism participated in daily 5-minute play activities with one nondisabled peer or sibling during an initial baseline period. Following their conduct of social skills training, teachers and parents implemented an intervention that encompassed adult prompting, edible reinforcement contingent on childrens positive exchanges, and target childrens self-monitoring of their own social behaviors. Three primary results were obtained. First, the self-monitoring package increased each target childs interactions with his peers and/or siblings. Second, the school and home procedures produced comparable impacts on some dimensions of childrens social behaviors, but other outcomes were affected differentially. Finally, both adult prompts and reinforcement were successfully reduced or faded within the school and home intervention settings.

Increasing positive social interactions by handicapped individuals during a recreational activity using a multicomponent treatment package.

A multicomponent treatment package increased the rate of positive statements among handicapped youth during a social/leisure activity at a work training setting. The package of role playing, graphic feedback, contingent reinforcement, and self-monitoring was directly replicated across three experiments in producing normative rates of positive verbal statements. There was no evidence of generalization to other stimulus activities. There was limited response generalization to a class of negative verbal statements. The study further examined the critical components of the maintenance package through a withdrawal design. It was found that contingent reinforcement and self-monitoring could maintain substantial rates of positive behaviors. In the third experiment it was further demonstrated that self-monitoring alone could maintain positive statements in three of the four students in the group.

Acquisition and Generalization of Coffee Purchase Skills by Adults with Severe Disabilities

Six adults with severe disabilities were taught to purchase coffee in a community sit-down restaurant. Skills in the community were taught using a 46 step task analysis, a prompt hierarchy of least to greatest prompts, and social reinforcement. Generalization was assessed across two restaurants with similar characteristics and one with dissimilar characteristics (i.e., a fast food restaurant). At the completion of training, the people involved in the study demonstrated competencies equal to non-handicapped customers and they maintained these skills at a two to five month follow-up assessment.

Functional Analysis and Intervention for Disruptive Behaviors of a Kindergarten Student

Abstract A functional analysis involving interviews and direct observation was used to analyze the multiple disruptive behaviors of a kindergarten student. Following this analysis, an intervention that combined reinforcement and teacher-cued self-monitoring procedures was implemented using an A-B-A-B withdrawal design. The procedures produced a significant decrease in his disruptive behavior and changes in the functions of disruptions across experimental phases.

Analyzing Problem Behaviors in the Classroom: A Case Study of Functional Analysis:

Presents a case study in order to demonstrate the use of functional analysis to isolate and correct problem behaviors

Community-Referenced Instruction in Technological Work Settings

Two studies investigated the extent to which students with serious vocational handicaps could learn work behaviors in technological settings. In Study 1, 12 students learned a number of chemical laboratory tasks. The median amount of training time per task was 2 hours and 37 minutes. In Study 2, pre- and posttraining videotape vignettes of 6 students performing a technical task were presented to a group of 27 respondents. On a social validity questionnaire, they judged the students to be significantly (p < .001) more vocationally competent after training. The characteristics of an effective secondary vocational training program are discussed.